Vehicle engine control system



2 Sheets-$heet 1 B. WALKER VEHICLE ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM 4 mm hm July 4, 1967 Filed Oct. 19, 1964 VEHICLE ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM Filed Oct. 19, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTgZR.

United States Patent 3,329,135 VEHICLE ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM Brooks Walker, 1280 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, Calif. 94111 Filed Oct. 19, 1964, Ser. No. 404,592 7 Claims. (Cl. 123-97) This invention pertains to a control system for a vehicle engine, particularly a system that will reduce the smog producing components of the engine exhaust.

Many patents, such as U.S. No. 1,982,049 to L. D. Fageol, dated Nov. 27, 1934, have shown ways to cut off the flow of fuel from the float bowl to the main and idle jets on closed throttle decelerations at more than a predetermined manifold suction.

Others, such as US. 2,439,573, to Mallory entitled Degaser for Internal Combustion Engines have shown throttle closed and speed sensitive bleed controls to open a bleed in the circuit from the float bowl to the idle jet to cut out the idle fuel flow on closed throttle decelerations above a predetermined speed.

In my co-pending application, Ser. No. 183,185, entitled Dash Pot Carburetor Control, now Patent No. 3,216,793, I have shown a dash pot for controlling the rate of throttle opening and closing when used with a soft link between the throttle valve and the foot throttle.

This invention is an improvement over each of the above in that a shift is provided in the resistance to rapid motion controlled by the dash pot which controls the rate of throttle opening when used with a soft link between the carburetor throttle valve and the foot throttle.

Another feature, the shift is controlled by an engine speed sensing device so that over a predetermined speed the dash pot has a greatly reduced resistance as the delay necessary at above 50 miles per hour is much less than when cruising at 10 to 30 mph.

Another feature is the type of shift being such that a gradual change in resistance is possible over a speed range of 40 m.p.h. to 50 mph, for example, rather than a snaptype change in rate of resistance.

Another feature is the use of one speed sensing source on the engine, such as the velocity of water following the impeller on the water pump to operate one speed sensitive device, such as a valve or switch at one speed range of the engine. Such a device is shown in my co-pending application, Ser. No. 317,403, entitled Speed Sensing Device, now Patent No. 3,204,620. The same source'of varying fluid pressures with engine speed as from the water pump, as shown in said application, Ser. No. 317,403, being used to operate a second speed sensitive device to operate another device such as the shift in the resistance of a dash pot at entirely different engine speed ranges.

Other features will be more particularly pointed out in the accompanying specification and claims.

I have illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 represents one form of the invention shown diagrammatically and in vertical View, partly cut away.

FIG. 2 illustrates another form of the invention.

In FIG. 1 I have shown a part of a vehicle engine 10 having a carburetor 11, a throttle valve 12 with a control arm 13, a float 14, a float bowl 15 and fuel 16. An idle circuit has a passage 18 leading from an opening low in the float bowl 15 well below the top of the fuel 16, past air bleed anti-percolator port 21, past transfer port 19 usually on the venturi side of the throttle 12 when in the closed or idle position and on the idle port 22 which is controlled by diaphragm operated valve 25. Valve 25 is mounted in housing 26 with bleed hole 27. Diaphragm 30 actuates valve 25 against the action of spring 29 which 3,329,135 Patented July 4, 1967 tends to open valve 25 relative to idle port 22. Air to idle is admitted through pipe 8 and control valve 7.

Adjustment of the amount of opening of valve 25 is by screw 28 that limits the travel of the center of the diaphragm 30 away from the seat 22 in housing 26 or by screw threads 26a on housing 26 which control the position of housing 26 from the seat of port 22. The position of the threads 260 relative to the carburetor housing is kept in adjustment by spring 9. Adjustment by the rotation of diaphragm motor in housing 26 is facilitated by having pipe 62 connected to the center of the housing 26 so that the rotation of the housing affects pipe 62 as little as possible. Pipe 63 transfers the suction around to the carburetor side of diaphragm 30.

The control of the valve 25 in opening or closing the fuel path from the float bowl fuel 16 through port 22 is by means of engine intake suction from intake manifold 31 through pipe 32, throttle operated valve 33, which opens and connects line 32 with line 34, when the throttle is closed as shown. Valve housing 35 has a valve 36 with face 38 controlling the opening of the passage to line 34 and lower face 37 which can close a bleed passage around stem 39. Stem 39 connects valve 36 to diaphragm 41 in housing 42 and is held in the upper or seat 38 closed position against line 34 by spring 43.

A vehicle radiator 50 has a pressure cap 51 and line 52 connected to the top of the motor and line 53 connecting the radiator with the intake to the water pump 54; line 56 connects the water pump with the water jacket of the motor 10; impeller 55 is driven by the fan belt or other usual means, not shown, to rotate clockwise, as viewed in FIG. 1, in the usual manner in approximate constant ratio to the speed of the motor crank shaft, not shown. The motor may have a thermostat 6 to restrict the flow of water when the engine is cold. This will not appreciably alter the velocity of water following the perimeter of the pump rotor. Pit-ot tube 57 picks up a component of the pressure resulting from the water or cooling fluid following the perimeter of the rotating pump rotor or impeller 55 to produce a higher pressure at engine operating speeds than is available in pipe 53 leading from the radiator to the intake to the water pump 54. Line 58 connects the pitot pick up 57 to diaphragm housing 42 above the diaphragm or on the valve 36 side of diaphragm 41. Pipes 59 and 61 connect pipe 53 to the other side of diaphragm 41 on the spring 43 side of diaphragm 41. By these connections when the engine speed gets around 1000 plus or minus rpm. valve face 38 will open to connect pipe 34 to pipe 62 and pipe 63 and to the spring side of diaphragm 30 so as to cause valve 25 to close the idle fuel passage to port 22 when decelerating with closed throttle 13, open valve 33 and open valve face 38 when the engine speed is above about 1000 r.p.m. At the same time pipe 64 connects the intake pipe 53 to the pump '54 to the spring 65 end of operating cylinder 66 by means of line 59. Operating cylinder 66 has piston 67, a piston rod 68 connected to valve arm 69 of by pass valve 70 which is open when the piston 67 is moved substantially or completely toward spring 65 by the pressure developed in the pitot pick up 57 through line 74 which connects to the pivot 75 end of operating cylinder 66. The pitot 57 pressure being higher than the pressure in intake pipe 53, lines 59 and 64, the piston 67 will move away from the pivot 75 end of the operating cylinder 66 when these differential pressures are great enough to overcome the resistance of spring 65. It could be arranged that piston 67 could move substantially or a complete stroke in cylinder 66 at between 2000 and 2500 rpm. of the motor if that is the speed range that a shift in the resistance of throttle dash pot 71 is desired. By varying the spring 65, other ranges of operation could be used. Dash pot 71 has a piston 72 with a port 74 controlled by a flapper valve 7 3 which opens as the throttle 12 is closing, that is when piston 72 is moving away from pivot 87 end of the dash pot 71. Port 76 in the piston 72 supports a metering rod 75 which has a small flat in the throttle closed position of the piston 72 graduated to a much larger flat at the half open position of throttle 12 and piston '72 and then a deeper flat or groove in the metering rod 75 toward the fully open position of throttle 12 and the corresponding position of piston 72. Foot throttle 78 is pivoted to floor boards 79 and actuates rod 86, member 82, and rod 81. Member 82 has two turned up ends through which throttle rod 86 slides freely but is resisted by spring 83 acting against one turned up end of member 82 and collar 84 attached to rod 86. Cotter pin 87 prevents rod 86 from pulling out of the turned up end of member 82. Rod 81 connects to throttle arm 13. Throttle arm 13 is connected to dash pot piston arm 77. By these connections, when foot throttle 78 is suddenly tramped down at below 40 m.p.h., collar 84 will move to compress spring 83 in the soft link 80 due to the resistance of dash pot 71 to sudden motion, particularly at the start of throttle opening. A spring 83 expands against the resistance of the dash pct 71, the throttle will open over a period of about 2 seconds.

As the speed of the vehicle gets over 50 mph, by pass valve 70 will be opened by piston 67 so that the time delay on sudden tramp down of throttle 70 from a deceleration position to full open or floored position may be reduced to one second or less by by pass valve 70. Valve 70 is connected to the opposite ends of dash pot 71 by lines 71 and 72a.

By this construction a single pressure generator such as the water pump can operate two or more devices at different engine speeds such as speed sensing valve 35 being operated by the water pump pressures at around 1000 r.p.m. and piston 67 and by pass valve 70 operated by the same water pump pressure source at engine speeds such as 2000 to 2500 rpm.

In FIG. 2 I have shown another form of the invention, in which I have shown a rotor 90 in a pump with housing 91 with an intake pipe 92 leading from a reservoir 93. Pipe 94 leads from the outlet of the pump in housing 91 to the reservoir 93. Liquid 95 is above the level of the outlet to pipe 94 in reservoir 93.

Pitot tube 96 faces toward the flow of liquid following the exterior of rotor 90 to pick up a pressure component of the velocity of liquid impinging on the pitot tube opening. This pressure from pitot tube pick up 96 is transmitted through pipes 97 and 98 to pressure sensitive motor 100 which includes a diaphragm 101 resisted in motion to the right, as viewed in FIG. 1, by spring 102. Port 104 bleeds the spring side of the housing for motor 100. Operating rod 103 is guided by the housing of motor 100. Rod 103 could actuate a device such as the valve 35 shown in FIG. 1 at a speed range of about 1000 rpm. of rotor 90.

Pressure sensitive motor 105 includes diaphragm 106 resisted by spring 107. Bleed 109 bleeds the spring side of the housing for motor 105 and operates control rod 108 which could operate by pass valve 70 on dash pot 71 at about 2000 r.p.m. of rotor 90, as shown in FIG. 1.

From the two drawings, it can be seen that applicant has devised a structure using a single source of variable fluid pressure from a centrifugal rotor operating in a liquid to operate a multiplicity of speed sensing governortype devices from the single variable source of pressure variations with speed changes. This is simple, inexpensive, and allows the governing motors to be remote from the driven shaft that operates the pump rotor.

This construction allows many governors from a single source of pressure, each operating at a different speed range for a different type of control.

I have illustrated my invention in these various forms; however, many other variations may be possible within the scope of this invention.

To those skilled in the art to which this invention relates many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. The disclosures and description herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

I claim as my invention:

1. An engine having a fuel feeding system, a throttle in said fuel feeding system, said system including first means for providing fuel to idle said engine, second means for automatically shutting off fuel to idle when decelerating with said throttle in the engine idle position above a predetermined engine speed, a pedal, a soft link connecting said pedal to said first throttle, a dash pot connected to the throttle for resisting rapid throttle opening motion of said pedal, engine speed sensing third means for changing the resistance of said dash pot so that said resistance to rapid throttle opening motion by said pedal from the closed throttle position is much less above a predetermined engine speed than below said predetermined engine speed.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, in which said third means includes a by pass valve connected to said dash pot and means responsive to a speed above said predetermined speed for opening said valve.

3. A device as defined in claim 2, and means responsive to a speed below said predetermined speed for closing said valve.

4. An engine having a fuel system comprising means for sensing engine speed, means responsive to said sensing means for supplying idle fuel to the engine and for cutting off the supply of said fuel at a predetermined engine speed at closed throttle operation, and throttle means for supplying fuel to said engine for varying the power thereof, said throttle means comprising a manual operator, yieldable means connecting the operator to the throttle, a dashpot connected to said yieldable means, and means responsive to said sensing means at preselected engine speeds above said predetermined speed for regulating the resistance of the dashpot for less resistance above said speed than below said engine speed.

5. A device as defined in claim 4 wherein the dashpot comprises an enclosure with a movable wall mounted therein.

6. A device as defined in claim 5 wherein the means for regulating the resistance of the dashpot comprises a by-pass conduit connected to opposite sides of the said movable wall, a valve in said conduit for regulating the flow of fluid therethrough, and means for operating the valve.

7. A device as defined in claim 6 wherein the means for operating the valve comprises an arm connected to the valve and wherein the means for sensing the engine speed comprises a fluid pressure generator for generating a pressure proportional to the speed of the engine, and fluid pressure responsive means connected to the generator and the arm for moving said valve from a closed to a part open position.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,809,623 10/1956 Hall 12397 X 2,868,182 1/1959 Cornelius 123-97 3,216,692 11/1965 Walker 123-98 X 3,204,620 9/1965 Walker 123l02 MARK NEWMAN, Primary Examiner.

LAURENCE M. GOODRIDGE, Examiner. 

1. AN ENGINE HAVING A FUEL FEEDING SYSTEM, A THROTTLE IN SAID FUEL FEEDING SYSTEM, SAID SYSTEM INCLUDING FIRST MEANS FOR PROVIDING FUEL TO IDLE SAID ENGINE, SECOND MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY SHUTTING OFF FUEL TO IDLE WHEN DECELERATING WITH SAID THROTTLE IN THE ENGINE IDLE POSITION ABOVE A PREDETERMINED ENGINE SPEED, A PEDAL, A SOFT LINK CONNECTING SAID PEDAL TO SAID FIRST THROTTLE, A DASH POT CONNECTED TO THE THROTTLE FOR RESISTING RAPID THROTTLE OPENING MOTION OF SAID PEDAL, ENGINE SPEED SENSING THIRD MEANS FOR CHARGING THE RESISTANCE OF SAID DASH POT SO THAT SAID RESISTANCE TO RAPID THROTTLE OPENING MOTION BY SAID PEDAL FROM THE CLOSED THROTTLE POSITION IS MUCH LESS ABOVE A PREDETERMINED ENGINE SPEED THAN BELOW SAID PREDETERMINED ENGINE SPEED. 